Dir. Roland Emmerich, UK/Germany, 2011, 130 mins
Cast: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewliss,
Review by Carol Allen
The conceit of the film is a very interesting one – that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford – and it argues its case convincingly in dramatic terms as opposed to dry academic arguments, telling the story as an intriguing and gripping political cum literary thriller. Though not without its spectacular elements, it’s also a distinct departure in terms of subject matter for Emmerich, best known for action/disaster movies, such as The Day After Tomorrow and Godzilla.
According to the story Edward (Ifans) is a bit of a misfit in the world of the Elizabethan aristocracy, in that he has a talent and a passion for the written word and its power to change hearts and minds – something that is not regarded as a fit interest for a gentleman and is heavily frowned on by the puritanical guardian who raises him, Henry Cecil, (Thewliss) chief political advisor to Queen Elizabeth. Actors and playwrights are pretty low in the social pecking order in Elizabethan England, where all power is in the hands of the intrigue ridden world of the court, which is manipulated by Cecil and his son Robert (Edward Hogg). Fascinated as he is by the theatre however, Edward approaches playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto), who reluctantly agrees to act as “the front” for Edward’s playwriting. Edward’s object is to not only find an outlet for his poetic soul but to use the plays to put forward his political opinions, particularly about the loathed Cecil. However an actor in the company by the name of William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) rumbles that there is something going on and takes over the author’s credit for the plays.
The film has a very good cast, led by Ifans in what is a very different role for him. He gives a very restrained and ultimately moving portrayal of a conflicted man, who is often arrogant because of his upbringing but still sympathetic. Queen Elizabeth, with whom according to the story Edward has an affair resulting in an illegitimate son, is played as a younger women by Richardson and by her mother Redgrave in her later years – a role sharing that they first did in Wetherby (1985). And once more it works well. The love affair between her and the young Edward (played as a young man by Jamie Campbell Bower) is convincing and the final confrontation between the now elderly couple is very moving. There’s also a striking performance from Armesto as Jonson, while Spall makes the sly and duplicitous Will Shakespeare of this tale both comic and slimy.
Particularly if you know your Shakespeare well, the way according to the film that Edward uses the plays to make fun of and criticise the political figures of the day, as in Cecil being depicted as the bumbling royal adviser Polonius in Hamlet or Cecil’s son, a hunchback, being the obvious role model for Richard III , is amusing. There are also some fascinating extracts from the plays as they would arguably have been produced at the time and some interesting possible solutions to other long standing historical mysteries, apart from who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays, such as an explanation in the context of the story as to who murdered playwright Christopher Marlowe.
Apart from the very opening sequence of Jonson being chased through the muddy streets of London by Cecil’s soldiers, Emmerich’s use of CGI techniques to give a wide shot reality to Elizabethan London stands between us and the smelly, messy texture of what the city must have really been like at time. It all tends to look a bit artificial and pretty. And good though the actors are, the film doesn’t have quite the same sense of the insecurity and danger of living in an espionage and fear ridden society comparable to Eastern Europe under communism, which is where the 1998 historical thriller Elizabeth scored so highly. It makes the politics motivating the characters clear but doesn’t quite convey that sense of paranoia and danger.
However on all other levels Anonymous film succeeds brilliantly in its purpose. Emmerich and writer John Orloff have taken an intellectually fascinating academic theory and turned it into a strong and engaging human drama.
